A journal of canoe expeditions along the rivers of Australia's Murray Darling Basin using photographs, stories and information to highlight the beauty, challenges and history of these rivers and the communities they flow through.

Murray Floods

This page focuses on the experience and needs of the Echuca-Moama community in which I live.

Dam levels

Community Support and News

News Radio

ABC Local Radio

With its network of more than 60 local radio stations throughout Australia, ABC Local Radio is uniquely placed to communicate emergency updates to communities affected by natural disasters.Listen to yourABC Local Radiostation for information, advice and updates.

Defences

The primary result of the Cadell Fault however is that the west-flowing water of the Murray River strikes the north-south running fault and diverts both north and south around the fault in the two main channels (Edwards and ancestral Goulburn) as well as a fan of small streams, and regularly floods a large amount of low-lying country in the area. These conditions are perfect for River Red Gums, which rapidly formed forests in the area. Thus the displacement of the Cadell Fault 25,000 years BP led directly to the formation of the Barmah River Red Gum Forests

Levees

Soldiers fill sandbags in Echuca. (ABC News)

Ecology

Barmah Forest and floods

Thousands of years ago the Murray flowed north of Echuca, along the course of what is today called Green Gully. It was the Goulburn River that flowed through what is now Echuca. Tectonic activity caused the land to the west of the present Barmah-Millewa Forest to be uplifted by between 8 and 12 metres along a north-south fault line, sloping back down to the west (the Cadell Tilt Block). The Cadell Fault Line runs between Deniliquin and Moama. The same fault continues south from Echuca to Runnymeade (Lake Cooper and Green Lake lay immediately east of this fault). The westward course of the Murray was blocked and a huge lake formed as a result. Earth movements along this fault are still occurring. The uplift was thought to have occurred about 16,000 years ago, give or take a few thousand years.

How floods shape rivers

currents undercut a redgum at the Campaspe junction (Riv Herald)

gradually changing the river's shape

river beds move over time

erode and deposit

leave behind billabongs

move sediment

Student Tasks

GEOGRAPHY

Zoning and Flood Risk

Find out which zone your house is in by reading through the above documents and the Flood map from the Shire of Campaspe.

How flood prone is your house?

Using the information on real time heights of the river answer the following questions

1. What is the current height of the river now?2. Is the river rising or falling? Explain how you can tell this.3. Copy the graph from both the area where you live and somewhere upstream to your notes.4. Compare these.5. What do you expect to happen in the next week to the river near where you live?6. Why?

ABC - Goulburn downstream of McCoy's Bridge

MEDIA

Current News Articles

Make a folder with the news articles you find by searching your local paper and the links below. Don’t forget to say where you found the article and what year it is from.